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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29112264">Scene I: One of a Kind</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheEigthPillarGeneral/pseuds/TheEigthPillarGeneral'>TheEigthPillarGeneral</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>In Pursuit of a Thief [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ghost of Tsushima (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>13th Century CE, Alternate Universe - No Mongol Invasion, Class Differences, F/M, First Meetings, Jin: "Oh no she's hot", Loosely Inspired by Pride and Prejudice, Samurai, Yuna: Kicks bandit ass</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 11:36:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,219</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29112264</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheEigthPillarGeneral/pseuds/TheEigthPillarGeneral</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Yuna takes up a sword to defend her brother from bandits and catches the interest of none other than Jin Sakai, the jito's nephew.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jin Sakai/Yuna</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>In Pursuit of a Thief [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2136030</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>49</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Scene I: One of a Kind</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I've had this AU stuck in my mind for some time now, where the Mongol invasion never happens, but Jin and Yuna not only meet, but have a romance similar to that of Harunobu Adachi and Lady Masako. This series will consist of scenes from their courtship, and will be updated sporadically.</p><p>With that being said, I hope you all enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The bandits just <em> had </em>to strike now. Out of all the times, it just had to be today, when they were supposed to leave the Higanbana Inn and head north towards Kubara, where Omi Village lies.</p><p>Now, there’s no way they can leave. Not when bandits are pillaging the inn and attacking anyone who tries to escape.</p><p>“Damn it all…” Yuna curses under her breath, peering around the corner of the stables.</p><p>Screams fill the air, mixed in with the bandits’ cruel laughter.</p><p>“There’s no point in running from us!” one of them taunts. “Give us everything you have or we'll kill you all!”</p><p><em> Typical bandits… </em> Yuna thinks sardonically. <em> Where the hell are the samurai when you need them? </em></p><p>“Let go of me!”</p><p>Yuna’s eyes widen. <em> Taka! </em></p><p>As if on cue, a bandit drags Taka out from the inn and throws him onto the ground, ignoring his protests and struggles against him.</p><p>“No, don’t hurt them, please!” Taka protests, cowering from the bandit. “Leave them alone!”</p><p>In the doorway, Taro the innkeeper and his wife cower in fear, and Yuna tenses up when the bandit yanks Taka up by the collar.</p><p>“Shut up!” he snarls, striking him across the face.</p><p>That does it. Yuna can’t stay back any longer.</p><p>Blinded with rage, she unsheathes her sword and charges toward the bandit.</p><p>“Let my brother go!” she snarls, slashing the bandit across the back.</p><p>The bandit collapses to the ground with a pained yell, releasing Taka as he falls.</p><p>Yuna moves to stand protectively in front of her younger brother, glaring at all the bandits that surround her, brandishing their swords and spears in an attempt to intimidate her.</p><p>“Yuna!” Taka whispers.</p><p>“Get back inside. Now,” Yuna tells him firmly.</p><p>Taka wastes no time in obeying her, hurrying back inside.</p><p>With him gone, Yuna turns her full attention to the bandits, staring at them challengingly.</p><p>“What’s the matter? Too afraid to take me on?” she dares.</p><p>Almost immediately, one of them responds to the taunt with a yell as he raises his sword and charges towards her.</p><p>Swiftly, Yuna runs him through with her blade, then moves onto the next one to charge at him.</p><p>The fight is a blur, but it’s definitely ugly. Battles are an ugly occurrence, whether it’s being fought by samurai or by peasants.</p><p>Yuna shows them no mercy, and while her sword is not as refined as a samurai’s blade, it does the job well in cutting down her enemies.</p><p>She doesn’t know how much time passes, but at last, the bandits are all dead, their bodies strewn about the courtyard.</p><p>Silence rings through the air as the other travellers gather around the scene in shock, and Yuna slowly sinks to the ground, sticking her blade into the ground as she tries to catch her breath.</p><p>Never has she fought this intensely before. Her heart pounds hard against her chest, her left cheek stings from a cut she’d somehow gotten in the fray, but at least the inn is safe now.</p><p>The galloping of multiple horses gets everyone’s attention, and Yuna looks up just in time to see a samurai contingent approaching the gates of the inn on horseback.</p><p>Yuna narrows her eyes at the samurai in their radiant black and gold armour, slowly getting back onto her feet.</p><p>While Taka and the others bow in greeting, Yuna just glowers at the young man in elaborate black armour over a dull gold shitagi.</p><p>“Well, look who finally decided to show up,” she snaps by way of greeting.</p><hr/><p>The ride to Higanbana Inn had taken much longer than expected or desired.</p><p>Bandit activity had become alarmingly frequent in Kubara as of lately, and some of them have gone as far as attacking high-ranking samurai. Some of the minor noble families in Toyotama have suffered bandit attacks upon them and their estates, so there’s no reason as to why they wouldn’t target the major clans of Tsushima.</p><p>Clad in his father’s armour, the black helmet with deer antlers upon his head, Jin Sakai leads his kashindan through the forest towards the inn, hoping that they aren’t too late.</p><p>“Keep your eyes and ears alert,” he orders. “There could be bandits hiding in the woods.”</p><p>It’s better to be safe than sorry, after all.</p><p>At last, they arrive at the inn, but as they draw closer to the gate, Jin notices three bodies strewn in and around the complex, all of them struck down by a blade.</p><p>The cuts are harsh; a mark of a crude blade. Nevertheless, Jin can’t help but feel astonished as he looks around.</p><p>Did one person kill all these bandits on their own? Whoever did this must be a skilled fighter.</p><p>As the rest of the kashindan look around in disbelief, Jin leads them up to the main building, nodding at the peasants and travellers who bow in greeting.</p><p>Five more bodies litter the courtyard around the inn, and whispers fill the air as they draw closer.</p><p>And that’s when Jin sees her.</p><p>A woman stands amidst the carnage, covered in blood, sweat, and dirt as she glowers at Jin and his kashindan, gripping her blood-stained blade in her hand.</p><p>Her eyes are hard, her skin bronzed from the sun, her hair pulled back into a ponytail with a hachimaki framing her bangs, and there’s a roughness to her that is a sharp contrast to the delicate beauty of a noblewoman, and yet something about this contrast is quite intriguing.</p><p>“Well, look who finally decided to show up,” the woman snaps, her voice surprisingly low.</p><p>Jin dismounts from Nobu, his handsome white steed, then slowly approaches the woman.</p><p>“Did you kill all of these bandits?” he asks, unable to hide the shock from his voice.</p><p>The woman glowers at him again. “What do you think, samurai?” she retorts, wiping away a trail of blood that spills from a cut on her cheek.</p><p>Not even that fiery response is enough to faze Jin, who simply holds his hand up to silence the whispers of his kashindan.</p><p>“My name is Jin Sakai,” he introduces himself. “Would you tell me your name?”</p><p>“Yuna!”</p><p>Right then, from the inn, a young bearded man rushes outside, only to stop in his tracks at the sight of Jin before offering a bow of greeting to him.</p><p>The woman, Yuna, glances over at the man before turning back to Jin.</p><p>“Well, there you have it,” she tells him. “The name’s Yuna.”</p><p><em> What a brave woman… </em>Jin can’t help but feel amazed. For her to single-handedly defeat these bandits to protect not just her brother, but other innocent people…</p><p>Jin offers her a smile. “What you did was very brave, Yuna,” he tells her. “You are perhaps even braver than any other samurai I know of.”</p><p>Yuna just raises an eyebrow. “Yes, but it shouldn’t have taken you this long to come help us, right?”</p><p>“Yuna!” the innkeeper chides, almost scandalized. “That is the jito’s nephew you’re talking to!”</p><p>Strangely, Jin isn’t even offended.</p><p>“Forgive me, Yuna,” he says sincerely. “There has been a lot of bandit activity in Kubara recently, and some of them have been going after noble families. We had to be cautious.”</p><p>“If it weren’t for the taxes that your uncle imposed on us, maybe those bandits wouldn’t have been so desperate to attack innocent travellers for their food,” Yuna retorts. “And maybe they wouldn’t attack nobles like you either.”</p><p>She bows stiffly before turning to the inn. “I’m going to take care of my wounds. Please excuse me, milord.”</p><p>With that, she turns and heads back to her quarters in the inn.</p><p>Jin should be offended at her lack of respect. A peasant like her has no right to speak to him in such a bold, disrespectful manner, and yet, he can’t bring himself to feel insulted.</p><p>Instead, he’s very much <em> intrigued, </em> and a little bit caught off-guard at the mention of the taxes.</p><p>Trying not to let such thoughts show, Jin turns to his kashindan. “Remove the bodies,” he orders. “We’ll burn them away from the inn.”</p><p>Hopefully, he can get a chance to speak to Yuna again before he takes his leave.</p><hr/><p>Yuna winces as she wipes away some blood spilling from a wound on her arm with a wet cloth. She tries to ignore the noise from outside, tuning out her brother apologizing to the samurai on her behalf as she wraps the cut with a bandage.</p><p>Moments later, the door slides open, and Yuna looks up just in time to see Taka approaching her with worried eyes.</p><p>She can’t help the sigh that spills from her lips. “I’m fine, Taka,” she tells him. “Don’t give me that look.”</p><p>“You shouldn’t have been so sharp to him, Yuna,” Taka advises her gently, tending to her wounds. “He is the jito’s nephew, after all.”</p><p>“I know…” Yuna mutters. “Was he upset or offended?”</p><p>“I don’t think he was,” Taka admits. “He seemed more concerned with making sure the bodies were removed and with speaking to the innkeeper.”</p><p>But who’s to say that her words didn’t offend him? Jin Sakai is basically the prince of this island, considering that he’s the jito’s nephew, and if he were offended by her words, he can easily make her and Taka’s lives miserable if he wants to.</p><p>“Are your wounds okay?” Taka asks.</p><p>Yuna nods. “I’m fine,” she says, rubbing her face. “But now our trip to Omi Village has been delayed by an hour or so.”</p><p>She looks back up at Taka. “We can’t afford to delay any longer,” she tells him firmly, standing up. “My wounds are fine now. Let’s get going so we can reach Omi Village before sunset.”</p><p>Taka sighs again, but nods reluctantly. “Alright,” he agrees. “Let’s get going.”</p><p>By the time they gather their things and bid farewell to the innkeeper, the samurai contingent has departed. In a way, Yuna is glad that she doesn’t have to see or talk to him again, especially after speaking those harsh words to him.</p><p>At the same time, she can’t help but feel curious as to why he hadn’t been offended by her lack of deference to him.</p><p><em> Stop thinking about him. </em> Yuna thinks to herself as she mounts her horse. <em> You’re not going to see him again. </em></p><p>“Come, Taka,” she calls, glancing over her shoulder. “Let’s go.”</p><p>“I’m ready, Yuna.”</p><p>With a snap of the reins, they head away from the inn and out onto the path towards Omi Village.</p><p>Despite her attempts to stop thinking about the samurai in his black and gold armour, Yuna can’t help but recall the way he’d spoken to her. He hadn’t been arrogant or haughty, and he hadn’t looked at her as though she were less than dirt, the way other samurai would have regarded her.</p><p>Why had he treated her so cordially?</p><p>Realizing where her mind is wandering, Yuna shakes her head, trying to banish such thoughts from her mind.</p><p><em> Don’t waste your energy on the jito’s nephew. </em> She scolds herself. <em> He’s not worth it. </em></p><hr/><p>
  <em> If it weren’t for the taxes that your uncle imposed on us, maybe those bandits wouldn’t have been so desperate to attack innocent travellers for their food. </em>
</p><p>Yuna’s words continue to echo in Jin’s ears for the rest of the day, long after he and his kashindan have returned to the Clan Sakai estate, and even as he writes his letter to his uncle, he can’t stop recalling those words.</p><p>Something about her harsh voice and the bitterness in her words has made him more curious about the lives of the peasants on this land, and he’s especially concerned to hear that people are suffering.</p><p>Jin likes to think of himself as a fair and just samurai, one who understands and cares about the needs of the common people. He’d thought he’d known everything about them, but this has only opened his eyes for real.</p><p>Ryuzo had said something similar many years ago, back when they were young and out training near Omi Lake.</p><p>
  <em> “You’re never going to understand what it’s like, Jin. You might think your uncle cares about us, but he never will. I’m sorry, but that’s how he is. He’ll never change.” </em>
</p><p>Jin had been offended on his uncle’s behalf back then, but now, Ryuzo’s bitter words make a lot more sense.</p><p>There’s still a lot that Jin has to learn about the lives of the common people, and he can’t afford to let them suffer any more. He might not be the jito, but as head of Clan Sakai, he will do whatever he can to make sure they aren’t starving or suffering any longer.</p><p>More than anything, though, he wants to find Yuna and talk to her for real.</p><p>He’s not sure what exactly it is about this woman that intrigues him so much. Is it the way she’d defeated all those bandits? The way she hadn’t deferred to him despite his rank?</p><p>Regardless of what it is, he’d be a fool if he didn’t try to find her. But alas, he has no idea how to find her, or where she had been travelling to.</p><p>All he can do is hope that fate will be fortunate enough to allow their paths to cross once more.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>And with that, the first scene has finished. This is my first fic for "Ghost of Tsushima", and I hope I did well!</p><p>Please let me know how I did, and have a good one!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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